Spiritual Guidelines for the Internet Era

Since we keep getting many private messages with spiritual queries regarding mantras, diksa ETC, here is a guideline compiled by our team keeping in mind that most of the questions come from people using social media and India to search for Sadgurus to guide them.

1. Do no search for any Gurus over the net. In time you will realize it is futile, or worse you will be led into deeper pit. Powerful sadgurus do not come here, those who may know stuff and are willing to guide, prefer one to one interaction in real life more than pesky questions about vague topics which reflect more on the confusions of the individual asking, than anything else.

2. Being desperate or wallowing in self-pity won’t get you far. It generally means you are as yet unfit for hard core sadhana. That’s how we at Adhyatmikta see it. So junk that nonsense. Nothing happens instantly except perhaps Maggi noodles.

3. If you are completely clueless and yet have a deep desire to do sadhana, then pick something and start off on your own. There are many generic stotras of different deities, one can easily chant something daily. Or meditate. Or pick a spiritual text like Gita. See what works best.

4. If you are not spending at least an hour, preferably 2 or more, on daily sadhana, then expect no results. Plus this has to be continued for minimum 3-5 years, without fail, ideally 12.

5. If the above is done, there is a chance that Nature will introduce you to a guide/Guru/mentor.

6. Don’t hanker for Gurus, search intelligently and pray for guidance. If after doing a specific sadhana – and please stick to one – for atleast a decade, there is still no advent of a guide or teacher, it simply means perhaps you are not destined to attain realization in this lifetime. Then ask yourself honestly, what is it that you want to do. Of course, even if not this time, maybe in some other life you can get, for nothing goes waste. Again patience is the keyword. Sadhana is being a long-distance runner.

Varanasi Photo by Ravikanth Kurma. Source: Google Image Search

7. When it comes to Shakti sadhana there are two broad bifurcation: General worship of Shakti with a mix of rituals and personal devotion for spiritual communion, or Tantra sadhana. The former can be done by anyone who is sincere. The later is impossible without a very good Guru, and such are rare. If it is in your destiny then Nature will arrange for someone to handhold you and lead, else be smart and give up. Tantra involves techniques + adequate preparation. When the preparation is complete, techniques will be revealed in time. If the base is not yet ready, then you will keep roaming and going from one Guru to another achieving nothing. Wet gunpowder won’t explode even if fire is brought into contact with it. Net result will remain a perfect zero, if not a downslide. All this instruction is if you want the genuine stuff, else you can always delude yourself by creating a make-belief, unreal and pretentious world centered around your own exaggerated self-importance… You may even attract some fools as followers. Happens all the time in this path.

8. Finally a sadguru who can take one directly to the Self/Shunya/Brahman is extremely, extremely rare. Such people come into our lives ONLY when we are standing very close to the zone of the Self by personal effort. So give up searching for a sadguru, rather focus on doing regular sadhana and trying to go close to the Self, if Self-realization is the aim. If you reach sufficiently close to the Self by your own effort, the Self will send a Guru to you. There is no other way on earth to find a sadguru who can immerse you into the state of non-dual Self-realization.

9. Other than a Tantric Guru and a Sadguru who can transmit experience of the Self directly, there are many other kinds of Gurus and Guides and mentors who can help in other different aspects of spiritual development. But these come subject to personal sadhana, and purva samskaras. Start relying on Nature and reading the clues she sends you. That is being smart. For Nature knows your path better than you yourself do. And quite often what one desires and what is best for one are totally different.

10. So bottomline: pick some generic stotra or mantra (generic) of the deity or some meditation and start sadhana. See how far you can go. If 10 years sounds too long, well you are in the wrong lane. Shift to something better. Like a good job, a decent pay package or a new car. No harm none at all in wanting these. They are all legitimate desires. But each path has its own requirements. Sadhana needs tremendous patience and decades and decades of dedication. Any amount of hankering for quick results, and/or self-pity, when such does not happen, is all rubbish and a waste of energy. You get what your past actions have cooked up for you. So these will lead nowhere. Remember, also, no one likes a desperate individual, least of all the gods. But by sadhana slowly you can chip off your own karmic balancesheet and make things turn favorable. That is the whole beauty of a practice done over long periods of time.